I always feel like I’m rubbing up against the bottom of America’s barrel when I go through security checks at an American airports. The people doing them appear bored and incompetent.

They appear a lot dumber than any of their peers around the world. Those doing the checking in Europe and Australia appear a ton smarter.

So why do we get the dregs in America? I don’t know. It appears that affirmative action plays an important role in hiring. I don’t see people being hired for their merit. They get hired for acting like sheep.

At Israel’s airport counters, personnel are college students or graduates who have also completed army service. They are uniformly intelligent and well trained. That is often not the case with Transportation Security Administration employees.

“The TSA should be hiring talented and skilled people; it should not be an alternative to Welfare.,” said Israel-based security consultant Marc Prowiser.

Luke: “Tell me about the impact of 9/11 upon you personally and professionally.”

Steve: “It had a profound impact. When it happened, I was in Washington. I was covering sports… That job became immediately obsolete. I was tasked to cover terrorism. It took me to New York. Then the [Iraq] war started and I got caught up in the war for the better part of three years.”

“There were several books I could’ve written about Iraq. This story, both personally and professionally, resonated with me the most… The whole private security madness going on over there, the hidden quality of it, it just made it a rich topic.”

Luke: “Why do you think there was a lack of journalistic investigation of the Bush administration’s claims of WMD in Iraq in the run-up before the Iraq war?”

Luke: “Why do you think there was a lack of journalistic investigation of the Bush administration’s claims of WMD in Iraq in the run-up before the Iraq war?”

Steve: “The country was in a fever. Nine-eleven changed the dynamic in the country. Newsrooms, like the rest of the country, got caught up in it and we lost sight of our accountability function as a counterweight to the government.”

“The coverage of the [Iraq] war has been quite good. A lot of it was the result of the lessons of going into the war and things that the news media certainly missed.”

Friday, January 8, 2010

Mary: Maybe it’s the holidays but the extracarricular flirting is reaching critical mass.

Mary: And it’s fun and long-distance, so why stop?

Mary: But since nothing fun is right, it must be wrong.

Mary: Right?

YourMoralLeader: flirting on whose part?

YourMoralLeader: yeah, it is not good, drains your sexual essence

Mary: Others start it, I feed it.

Mary: And feed on it.

Mary: I absolutely live on adoration. I’m an addict. Attention is my drug of choice.

YourMoralLeader: Attention is our substitute for love

Mary: That’s just it, it’s not. It’s all part of it. I love and am loved but it’s never enough. I think “attention whore” is a pretty good descriptor. After all, people ‘pay’ attention, and the result is an almost sexual thrill. Or an actual sexual thrill, depending on the attention paid.

During his second hour of his radio show today, Dennis Prager said: “If I ran for president, and I am actually thinking of doing so, I don’t expect to win but I would like to throw my hat in because I believe the number of Republicans who can inspire Americans to understand the great American calling is small. I wish it weren’t because I am not a political animal.”

In marketing terms, this is called “the reluctant hero.”

Think about the protagonist in Gladiator, Braveheart or The Patriot. These are reluctant heroes. They just want to stay home to be with their families. They don’t want to fight. They only fight because the bad guys give them no choice.

Jewish Las Vegas is a feudal society. A few billionaires call the shots (some of the world’s wealthiest Jews live there, such as Sheldon Adelson of the Venetian) and the community is usually happy to follow their directions.

What troubles the Las Vegas Jewish Federation troubles most non-profits. There’s a lack of oversight. There’s not an engaged lay board. They’re not inspired and committed. They have no mission.

Beth, in your morally degraded state, you do not understand that for me shiksas are purely a form of exercise. Practice, as it were, for the real thing that awaits me on the Great Day.

Many shiksas argue these days that they are just archetypal principles, but any third-grader in Hebrew school will tell you that they are idols. Veneration and offerings are unacceptable. I avoid shiksas where the shiksa is too into the mythos.

I’ll never forget the day my therapist asked me, “What do you get out of being in an emotionally unsafe relationship?”

I’d never though of that. The question took me aback, but then I quickly answered, “It leaves me free to look. I’m not risking anything precious. I can talk to all the women I want and see if I can find someone better for me.

“If I walked around with a million dollar diamond entrusted to me and I also knew that it would be really easy to lose it, it could happen any moment, I’d feel tremendous anxiety. On the other hand, if you gave me a $1 diamond and told me I could lose it easily, I wouldn’t care so much.

I’m walking home from the library. A young black man follows me carrying a bag.

It’s dark. I cross to the other side of the street next to the basketball court. From there, a group of young black men yell out at the young man, “Why You Trying To Look Like A Schoolboy, Nigger?”

He keeps silent and skulks on.

I look at him differently. So that bag was filled with books? I guess we have a lot in common. We could hang. Man, I had no idea of the pressure you were under from your friends. Books are life, man. They are a tree of life to those who hold them close.

Dennis Prager said near the end of his second hour today of his radio show: “The U.S. intensifies screening of travelers from 14 nations.”

He reads from the New York Times report.

“Apparently we are nationally profiling and religiously profiling.

“Isn’t that profiling? So all of the left-wing hullabaloo about profiling turns out to be nonsense?

“For all of my lifetime, the very notion that person X from background X might be more likely to commit a certain crime was considered racism. Not common sense. Racism. Now all of a sudden a dictate has gone out from the White House and it’s no longer racism.”

Monday, January 4, 2010

“We’re constantly bombarded with negative imagery,” says Alec. “If you just watch the 11pm news, you will see that almost every story is about what we should be afraid of, what we should run from. All these different ways of closing ourselves off as people. With Operation Optimism, I want to create a community of people who focus on what is going well in the world.”

I interview Alec at my hovel on Sunday.

“We’re not going to be unreasonably optimistic,” he says. “The idea is to understand the reality of our situation and to change it, to move towards a more positive direction.”

“If you focus on what is going well in your life, you can change more effectively.”

“We’re constantly bombarded with negative imagery,” says Alec. “If you just watch the 11pm news, you will see that almost every story is about what we should be afraid of, what we should run from. All these different ways of closing ourselves off as people. With Operation Optimism, I want to create a community of people who focus on what is going well in the world.”

I interview Alec at my hovel on Sunday.

“We’re not going to be unreasonably optimistic,” he says. “The idea is to understand the reality of our situation and to change it, to move towards a more positive direction.”

“If you focus on what is going well in your life, you can change more effectively.”

“We’re constantly bombarded with negative imagery,” says Alec. “If you just watch the 11pm news, you will see that almost every story is about what we should be afraid of, what we should run from. All these different ways of closing ourselves off as people. With Operation Optimism, I want to create a community of people who focus on what is going well in the world.”

I interview Alec at my hovel on Sunday.

“We’re not going to be unreasonably optimistic,” he says. “The idea is to understand the reality of our situation and to change it, to move towards a more positive direction.”

“If you focus on what is going well in your life, you can change more effectively.”

About Me

I am an Alexander Technique teacher in Beverly Hills (Alexander90210.com). I have five books available on Amazon.com. I've been blogging since 1997. I was born in Kurri Kurri, Australia, on May 28, 1966. I have lived in California since May 1977.